Quiet Years? Yeah Right
by Lady Helsing
Summary: This is a collection of one-shots and drabbles for the 2017 Boys of Summer Challenge! It's also a look into small and large events that happen to the boys (and girls) between Power and A Part.
1. Chapter 1

**I lost the bet.**

* * *

Kento stared at the dish of two peppers on the table. Not just any papers. Ghost Chili Peppers. Sitting directly across from these hot as the sun creations of earth-was Rowen looking very determined and anxious all at the same time. _I didn't even know he could make that face._

"Rowen, why do you have ghost chilies?" Cye knew his friend was not overly fond of spicy food. So either he bought the wrong thing, again, or something else was up.

"…I'm going to eat one."

"Come again?"

"Dude, you do those are the hottest peppers known to mankind. I hear they use the juice from those in pepper spray. Why the hell are you going to eat one?!"

"This isn't for one of those challenge video things on youtube again is it?" Ryo wasn't sure he wanted the answer.

"No." He let out a sigh, "I lost a bet."

Cye looked horror struck, "What on gods green earth did you and Sileny bet on this time?!"

"Baseball," Sage answered for his friend.

Ryo raised a brow, "Sileny doesn't watch sports." He'd never seen her watch them at least. Rachel would watch basketball with him and Cye but that was about it.

"No. But yesterday the Tigers played the Giants. Rowen's been going on for _days_ about this upcoming game. Sileny finally had enough and placed a bet with him to eat the spiciest thing he could find if his team lost."

And they had. Pretty badly too.

The leader looked at his friend with pure sympathy. "And you went with that?"

He nodded.

"I'm pretty sure she doesn't want you to burn your mouth off."

Kento poked one of the peppers with a butter knife, "Can't you just not and say you did?"

Rowen gave him an annoyed look, "You're kidding right?"

"I am not kidding!"

The sound of the door closing made them turn, "What's going on?" Rachel looked at them.

"On top of the weekly pizza night, Rowen is courting a painful date with these," Hardrock pokes the peppers again, "Because he lost a bet."

"Peppers?"

"Ghost chilie peppers." Cye looked at her then at Sileny.

The older girl face-palmed, "Seriously? That's what you go with?"

"You said the spiciest thing I could fine." He picked one up by the stem and wiggled it in her direction.

Sage looked at Rachel, "I'm sure our doctor can agree eating those isn't a good idea."

"Probably not. Why did you get two of them? How did you get two of them?!"

"I'm a foodie with resources."

No one argued with that.

"Rowen." Sileny walked to the table and stood across from him, "Why didn't you just go to the McDonalds on the corner and get the hot n' spicy?" The blank look she received was all the answer she needed. You didn't give that a single thought… "Du tråkig pilhuvudet*…You either go way too far or not far enough, is there no middle ground with you?"

Ryo leaned over to Rachel, "What was that first bit?"

"I don't know exactly. But she calls him that whever he really irriates her."

"No there is not." Rowen admitted to her, "I got the ghost chilies because it was the first thing that came to mind."

"This hot little bugger is the first thing you thought of?" The potter shook his head.

The archer glared.

"Okay fine." Sileny put her hands on her hips, "You lost. You eat a piece of it."

"Sileny!"

"What? A small piece won't kill him."

"You two are not allowed to make bets anymore!" Rachel stared them both down.

"I second that." Wildfire shook his head.

* * *

*Du tråkig pilhuvudet = you dull arrowhead - if my translator is right.


	2. Chapter 2

**A talk of friends**

* * *

That was the first interview in weeks that Rachel felt good about. The last few jobs she'd left pretty much knowing she didn't get the job, mostly because she wanted more out of work than being the pretty forging girl who could easily translate for the others. This café hostess and cashier job was something she was more than capable of doing, and she had noticed a good mix of nationalities already working there.

Hopefully she would get and give good news about getting a job. Sileny's job paid well but they did finally have to ask their families for a little more help with the rent.

"Rachel!"

Turning the girl smiled, "Kento!"

He trotted over to her with a grin, "You look nice. Another job interview today?"

"Yeah I just got out of it," she motioned to the hotel, "There's a European café in there that's looking for a hostess. I got a good feeling about this one."

"They better hire you. But if they don't I bet I can talk to mama about you working in the restaurant." He held up his hand, "I know, I know you don't think that's fair since we're friends-which I don't get-but hey you're more than qualified. Besides," He winked, "You'd get to see Ryo and I more."

She laughed, "Okay if I don't get this job then we'll talk about it. Deal?"

"Done deal. You know mama would be thrilled to have you around more, she thinks the world of you and Sileny."

"All her adopted children." They crossed the street, "How is Ryo doing? He was pretty nervous about starting there, it is his first job."

"He's fine. As you know we're all over there so much that he already knows everything on the menu and how things work up front. Serving and taking people's orders isn't as hard as he thought it would be. It's back in the kitchen that he turns into a lost puppy, can't say that surprises me though it's controlled chaos back there and I'm the only one mama ever lets back there when we have company."

Rachel smirked, "The cooks teaching him how to swear in Mandarin yet?"

It was all he could do not to burst out laughing, "They're trying, but he's not putting the effort into learning. Ryo's trying to be more practical or whatever and learn how to say orders so he can talk to the cooks who aren't bilingual."

"Aww you mean he doesn't want you to be his translator forever?"

"But I'm so good at it!" He gave her a sad puppy face.

She laughed and patted his shoulder, "Yes, yes you are. No one does it better."

"I do mean it though Rachel, you have a standing offer to come work with us."

"I know you mean it, Kento, I do. And I love you all the more for it. I just want to give this one last try for myself. It's hard to get a job in Tokyo… even harder since well I'm…"

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Trust me I hear you there. I was born and raised here, I speak three languages fluently, and I'm not as dumb as I look, but damn. The one time I quietly tried getting a different job-just to see what it might be like. Nothing." Shrugging he went on, "It's not easy being the minority."

"No it's not. You always stand out in the crowed, whispers and looks follow you, you're pushed harder or not hard enough, ignored, bullied… what?"

Kento had stopped and was staring at her, "You were bullied?"

"Weren't you?"

"No…you were really bullied by kids in Kyoto?"

She nodded, "In elementary school I was the only foreigner in my class in and thus the center of every joke this little group of about three kids could come up with. The other students rarely came to my rescue because if they did they got made fun of or worse. My teacher did the best she could."

"I know how this sounds but please tell me you snapped and kicked their ass one day."

Rachel laughed, "No. I had less of a backbone then. I did talk to my parents about it, they told me to ignore them, I did the best I could but one day things got pretty bad. I was walking home from school and it was raining, the trio followed me shouting all kinds of things until one of them pushed me down a small hill and I landed in a mud puddle. They laughed and laughed; started throwing more mud at me. I was crying, shouting, telling them to stop…"

The Ronin of Hardrock stared at his friend. He'd never heard this story, or that she had been bullied in school. The girls never did talk much about their life in Kyoto, still this was not something he could have ever thought might have happened. Maybe it was the big brother in him but he wanted to find these kids and throw them in a river. A deep, muddy, swift current river.

"Then someone came to my rescue." She smiled, shaking her head, "I have no idea where she came from or where she got that tree branch. Out of nowhere Sileny came running over flailing that thing around like it was a mace and shouting in Swedish-as only she can do when she's angry. She hit one of those boys in the side of his head and he spit out a tooth. They took off after that."

"Wait is that how you two met?"

"That's how I met my best friend, yes. We've been almost inseparable ever since. Both of us were the only foreigners in our classes and knew how it felt. Sileny's always been more of a do something about it person than I have."

He smiled, "I know that feeling. Though it's slightly different on my end. I was never bullied but I had other kids like me in school. I had a couple friends I was really close with, they lived just down the street from me. Zheng and Meili, we went all through elementary together."

"You've never mentioned them before. Why is that?"

"They had to move to Bejing the year I found out about…well about Hardrock. Family stuff, their grandfather was really sick, it started as a trip to say their goodbyes but they ended up staying. Long complicated story that I'd rather not get into right now. I don't really talk about them much because it depresses me. I really miss them. It's weird, I lost two friends then got four new ones, very different circumstances meeting the guys though."

"So I recall. At least we didn't meet like that."

"What are you talking about? A battle for a passing grade is as good as a battle for my life."

The younger girl laughed, "I would argue that it's not."


End file.
